What you need to know:

• Facebook is pausing development of an “Instagram Kids”.
• The company has been under fire in recent weeks after the Wall Street Journal reported it had prioritised engagement over safety in the face of internal research showing the damaging impact its platform were having.

Instagram has shelved plans to develop of a version of its platform for kids, citing the need for more time to work with parents, experts, and legislators after a barrage of articles from the Wall Street Journal and New York Times.

News that Facebook was building “Instagram Kids” was reported in March this year, after a post by a senior Instagram executive on an internal message board was leaked. Working on a version of Instagram that allows kids under 13 years old to safely use the platform was described as a “H1 priority” at the time.

In a blog post and series of tweets overnight, however, Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, wrote that while he believed an ad-free platform that addressed the problem of kids lying about their age was necessary, Facebook needs more time to demonstrate the project’s value.

“Critics of 'Instagram Kids' will see this as an acknowledgment that the project is a bad idea. That’s not the case. The reality is that kids are already online, and we believe that developing age-appropriate experiences designed specifically for them is far better for parents than where we are today,” Mosseri wrote.

“Our peers recognised these issues and built experiences for kids. YouTube and TikTok have versions of their app for those under 13.”

The re-designed app wasn’t meant for children, but rather “tweens” – those aged between 10 and 12. It would require parental permission to join, wouldn’t show advertising, and would have age-appropriate content and features. 

Likewise, he said news of the platform leaked "before we knew what it would be. People feared the worst, and we had very few answers at that stage."

Mosseri said while Instagram is pausing building an alternate platform, it will continue to expand tools allowing parents to oversee their children’s accounts.

The decision comes in the wake of The Facebook Files, a series of stories from the WSJ that alleged Facebook knew its platforms were “riddled with flaws that cause harm”, understood through its own internal research the damage they had been causing, but chose on multiple occasions to prioritise engagement metrics over safety.

The reporting included information about an internal “whitelist” rule that exempted high-profile users from community standards and enforcement, internal research that demonstrated the negative impact of Instagram on teenage girls, and the impact of 2018 algorithm changes that made the platform angrier rather than healthier.

Mosseri wrote the recent stories had “raised a lot of questions for people”.

“To be clear, I don’t agree with how the Journal has reported on our research… we do research like this so we can make Instagram better. That means our insights often shed light on problems, but they inspire new ideas and changes to Instagram.”